Reading the Museum Angkut: Cultural Space Production and Exhibition Narrative

Sosiohumaniora - Jurnal Ilmu-ilmu Sosial dan Humaniora Vol. 22, No. 3, November 2020: 382-390 ISSN 1411 - 0903 : eISSN: 2443-2660 READING THE MUSEUM ANGKUT: CULTURAL SPACE PRODUCTION AND EXHIBITION NARRATIVE Nindyo Budi Kumoro, Irsyad Martias, Manggala Ismanto, Hipolitus K. Kewuel, Andi A. Saifullah, and Jihananda M. Egidyah Prodi Antropologi, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya, Universitas Brawijaya, Jl. Veteran No. 1 Malang, 65145 E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected] ABSTRACT. This article is a museum study from an anthropological perspective. Generally, the museum is an institution that stores and preserves particular material cultures. On the other side, a museum can also be critically seen as a space for the production of cultural discourse that narrates a particular ideology through exhibition strategies and display systems. This study wants to explore the discourse of cultural ideology that is represented by the museum through the design and exhibition. The museum is no longer only monopolized by the state but also developed by the private sector which offers a fusion model between the museum, edutainment, and amusement park. Thus, this article proposes a case study of the Museum Angkut in Batu, East Java, one of the most popular private museums in Indonesia that exhibits transportation system and world civilization themes assembled by implementing amusement park concepts. This article would like to address the issue of the production of cultural discourse. The research questions are what kind of cultural discourse production is narrated in the Museum Angkut, and how has it been materialized through the display strategy? Additionally, this article explores the relationship of the visitor with material objects in the museum. This paper uses a hermeneutic approach, and Michael Foucault’s heterotopia to examine how cultural imagination with its ideology is represented in museum bodies. As a result, we argue that the Museum Angkut can reflect the character of society, as a post-colonial nation in the sense of seeing self and other cultures. Keywords: Museum; other; cultural space; exhibition MEMBACA MUSEUM ANGKUT: PRODUKSI RUANG KULTURAL DAN NARASI EKSHIBISI ABSTRAK. Tulisan ini adalah kajian tentang permuseuman dari sudut pandang antropologi. Museum merupakan institusi yang disamping menyimpan objek budaya material, juga sebagai ruang produksi wacana budaya melalui strategi pameran (ekshibisi) maupun tata pajangnya (display). Penelitian ini ingin menelusuri wacana ideologi budaya yang terepresentasikan dari museum melalui perancangan dan tata pajang yang disajikan. Museum saat ini tidak lagi hanya dimonopoli oleh negara, tetapi juga dikembangkan oleh sektor privat yang menghadirkan penggabungan antara museum, edutainment maupun amusement park. Dalam konteks tersebut, tulisan ini mengajukan studi kasus Museum Angkut di Batu, Jawa Timur, sebagai salah satu museum swasta populer di Indonesia yang mengusung tema transportasi dunia dan peradaban dunia tersohor yang dikemas dalam konsep amusement park. Tulisan ini berupaya menjawab persoalan tentang produksi wacana budaya seperti apa yang dinarasikan dalam Museum Angkut dan bagaimana hal tersebut diwujudkan melalui strategi tata pajangnya? Selain itu, artikel ini berupaya melihat relasi pengunjung dengan benda material dalam museum. Untuk mengungkap persoalan tersebut, peneliti menggunakan pendekatan hermeneutik dan sudut pandang heterotopia Michael Foucault, yang mengulas bagaimana imajinasi budaya direpresentasikan dalam sebuah tubuh museum. Hasilnya, kami berpendapat bahwa Museum Angkut dapat menjadi representasi bagaimana museum mencerminkan karakter masyarakat sebagai bangsa pasca- kolonial dalam hubungannya melihat diri sendiri dan kebudayaan liyan. Kata kunci: Museum; liyan; ruang kultural; ekshibisi INTRODUCTION scientists for exhibiting ‘strange’ or ‘unique’ artifacts. In other words, the museum can be said as a cabinet of Generally, the museum is an institution that stores curiosity (Koentjaraningrat, 1980: 14). Furthermore, and preserves particular material cultures. Also, the those artifacts are mostly originated from communities museum can be defined as a space that tacitly contains outside Europe that were carried out from explorations, cultural knowledge. As a cultural space, a museum can trade expeditions, and colonializations. Constructed by the also be seen as a space for the production of cultural European perspective, these cultural artifacts are narrated discourse that narrates a particular ideology with social, as a symbol of primitiveness and others or exotic cultures political, and economic purposes through exhibition (Svašek, 2007: 215). strategies and display systems (Hall, 2003: 5; Lidchi, 1997: The phenomenon of museums in Indonesia during 168; Marsanto, 2012: 44; Svašek, 2007: 137). Cultural the colonial era also followed the European trend, which ideologies that appear in museums commonly represent focused on the indigeneity, especially ethnographic, power relations which had been occurred in particular archaeological, and historical objects (Rath, 1997: 7; eras (Clifford, 1985: 240; Hooper-Greenhill, 1992: Taylor, 1995: 107). However, the fashion of museums as 168). For instance, in the early period of the emergence a place for “recognizing others” has begun shifting since of museum practices in Europe –from middle age to the independence era. Then, the museum has been used as 19th century– the museums were designed by nobles or a political tool to narrate and construct the national identity DOI: 10.24198/sosiohumaniora.v22i3.26956 Submited: 15 April 2020, Accepted: 27 October 2020, Publish: 10 November 2020 Sosiohumaniora, Vol, 22, No. 3, November 2020 383 and the national imagination (Anderson, 1991: 178; In the context of the museum as a space for the Taylor, 1995: 110). In this post-colonial period, museums production of cultural discourse, the Museum Angkut that are popular in Indonesia are related to the history narrates exhibitions that are quite different from the of nationalism, militarism, local kingdoms, prominent other conventional museums in Indonesia, both in terms figures, and local cultures in order to “identify themselves” of collections and its nuances. Hundreds of collections as a nation (McGregor, 2003: 107). of transportation from various countries and periods are This article wants to tell how the museum, as a placed in buildings with a fascinating architectural design space for the production of certain cultural narratives in and interactive media. Thus, the interplay of those elements Indonesia today, has developed, predominantly since in may manipulatively bring the visitors to be in other places the reformation era within the escalation of global culture. where particular vehicles came from, such as The United In other words, the story telling of the museum today States of America, Italy, France, Germany, and England. has been hybridized between a cultural space and the According to museum management, transportation is a amusement park, in response to the massive growth of the part of cultural products that can represent civilization, mass tourism industry, the development of urban lifestyle spatially, and temporally, so displaying collections in a and consumerism, and the privatization of the museum as conventional way is insufficient. As mentioned on its a business entity (Balloffet et al., 2014: 4). Along with website, “it is necessary to revive the function and identity the development of the contemporary museum, (Balloffet of each vehicle and placing it inside rooms that are made et al., 2014: 9) state that we can no longer give a strict authentic to the specific period and places” (Jawa Timur definition between museums and amusement parks (or Park Group, 2017). This phrase can be interpreted as theme parks) because both emphasize the implementation the Museum Angkut effort to “transport” certain cultural of architectural designs, entertainments, the interactive civilizations (especially Western Europe) as the main technology, and visitor experiences. It differs from the attraction for visitors. previous museum understanding, which is merely a place Based on the explanation above, this article wants to of collected artifacts (Macdonald, 2003: 5; Rectanus, reveal that the Museum Angkut is functioning as a place of 2006: 390; Wardoyo & Zef, 2020: 73). knowledge of the other, more specifically in the frame of In Indonesia, the shift of museum practices can global popular cultures. Therefore, research questions that be seen from the birth of private museums that offers need to be investigated are what kind of cultural discourse edutainment and fascinating architectural concepts, production is narrated in the Museum Angkut, and how adopting the famous Disney Land (Nuffida et al., 2016: has it been materialized through the display strategy? Thus, 55). In the context of “Disneyfication” and the space of this paper examines two problems. First is related ideation cultural production and exhibition narrative, the museum of the Museum Angkut. Second is related to the response is no longer oriented to construct local and national of visitors in interpreting the exhibition’s narrative. Also, identity, but the museum has become a space for popular by correlating those questions, this research wants to and global culture productions (Rectanus, 2006: 383). bring the readers to understand that the Museum Angkut, To illustrate the new museum trends in Indonesia as a contemporary museum in Indonesia,

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